New Zealand Passes World's First Law To Ban Smoking For Next Generation: Report

The number of stores legally permitted to sell cigarettes will be reduced by a tenth, from 6,000 to 600 across the country.

New Zealand passed the world's first legislation prohibiting the sale of tobacco to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009

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New Zealand on Tuesday passed the world's first legislation prohibiting the sale of tobacco to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009, in a bid to phase out smoking for the next generation and make the country smoke-free by 2025. According to the Guardian, the number of stores legally permitted to sell cigarettes will be reduced by a tenth, from 6,000 to 600 across the country. The law passed its final reading on Tuesday evening and will go into effect in 2023, as New Zealand strives to become "smoke-free" by 2025.

Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall stated, "Thousands of people will live longer, healthier lives, and the health system will be $5 billion better off from not needing to treat the illnesses caused by smoking, such as numerous types of cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and amputations."

The Guardian reported that a slew of other measures will also be taken to make smoking less affordable and accessible, including reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products and forcing them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than corner stores and supermarkets.

While introducing the law for its first reading in July, Verrall said: “For decades we have permitted tobacco companies to maintain their market share by making their deadly product more and more addictive. It is disgusting and it is bizarre. We have more regulations in this country on the safety of the sale of a sandwich than on a cigarette."

“Smoking rates are plummeting,” she added as quoted by the Guardian. “Our goal of being smoke-free by 2025 is within reach.”

The bill is now set to become law after passing its final reading in Parliament with support from Labour, the Greens, and Te Paati Maori.

Data released in November indicated that the number of persons smoking on a daily basis had declined to 8%, down from 9.4% the previous year, the lowest percentage since records started.